Elementary Presentation

This past week, on Wednesday, my partners and I led a day of fun for the children at the elementary school. The day mainly consisted of a scavenger hunt, which was followed by a brief presentation to the 4th through 6th graders. We spent the last two weeks designing the clues for this scavenger hunt, leading them on a merry journey around our Park West. The actual scavenger hunt itself did not go as planned. We had a plan in which the clues were set up in their designated positions, in envelopes, which the students were to take one of. This didn't quite pan out. Our first complication was us setting up our clues at the position that they led to. The clue that should have led the kids to the tennis court was at the tennis court. After scrambling in the wet grass to fix that mistake, which I ended up doing on my own because my partners had to go to their classes, I ran into another complication. The baseball fields we had planned on using for some of the clues were locked shut, and I could see the kids streaming from the first clue location. So I found a table near the baseball fields and laid their clues there, sending a frantic text to my partners of this information. At the last clue location the kids had caught up to me, and I was completely exhausted. I threw down the rest of the clues where they were supposed to be and ran up the hill with the other kids. As the other groups slowly made their way to the hill I passed out candy to the winners of the race. Luckily, we found at the end that the children enjoyed running around outside more than anything. Many had taken more than one clue, so after each round I replaced them in their proper position. I would like to mention one child in particular, simply because he impressed me. This child did a quadruple cartwheel down a large hill. The other reason besides me being impressed with him was that he was a good example of how the kids were having fun out there. I was very preoccupied with making sure that everything was perfect, but after a few rounds I discovered that if the scavenger hunt was set up properly or not, the kids would still have fun. Many rolled down the hill, played ninja, talked, laughed, and chased each other around. The presentation was brief, so while describing it I too will be brief. We had three slides on our powerpoint, which had pictures of the kids from the scavenger hunt that day. The slides had few words, just titled with what the camp was, why they should do it, and how to sign up. I myself had trouble projecting to the students, as we had no microphone so it was different than usual, but Kelsey on the other hand did very well. She ended up doing much of the presentation, as the kids looked as if they were losing interest. Next time I would want to prepare more, and now I will have it in my head if I ever do a scavenger hunt that the clues do not go where the clues themselves lead. All in all, our day went well, and when I asked a few kids  afterward, several said that they were at least considering signing up.